This Is It
by Ryta-chan
Summary: So far, thievery was all I had to live for. No parents, no family, everyone I knew regarded me as a nuisance, but then, he appeared and changed all of that. And because of him, I am now a ninja of the Village Hidden in the Sound.
1. Chapter 1

Running from them. Yes, this was one of my first few memories. Running from the ones I stole from. Thankfully, I was somewhat gifted with speed and I always managed to lose them. After running, I always reminded myself that every sprint I made was worth it. It brought me nourishment and I knew I had my life ahead of me, but for now, this was my life. I..I don't remember exactly where I was born. I don't entirely remember my 'parents' either. I can kinda vaguely remember their appearances, I guess. My mother had hair that wasn't too dark, sorta messy and it traveled down to her shoulders. My dad wasn't anything out of the ordinary either; an average stature along with spiky grey hair, something I apparently inherited, and dark eyes. But, what I do know was that my life had changed forever on September fourteenth, by him.

"That's the kid from yesterday wasn't it dad?" The shorter of the two men yelled.

"That's the one!" The older man panted," He's dead for sure!"

Though somewhat scared of the older man's threat, he was confident in his abilities and sprinted into an alley. But to his surprise, the alley led to a dead-end. Shocked, a younger Zaku Abumi shakily took steps back in fear. The two men eventually caught up to him and confronted him.

"This is the last time you steal from us!" The older man shouted at the top of his lungs.

Zaku flinched, but he knew he had to act tough, that was his only option left. That was always the other option.

"And who's going to stop me?" Zaku scoffed.

Relentlessly, the younger man punched Zaku in the mouth. Zaku fell backwards and onto the ground.

Before the man was about to throw another punch, the older man stopped him.

"Huh?" The younger man sounded.

The older one looked towards Zaku in disgust and threw his foot on Zaku's stomach.

"Aren't you going to give your old man a turn?" The older man smirked. The two began to beat Zaku without a single bone of regret in their body. Their hatred for Zaku seemed to be infinite as they kept beating the young boy for roughly two hours. Finally, when Zaku seemed unconscious and presumed dead, the two walked off.

After ten minutes, Zaku eventually sat himself up. He coughed up blood and rubbed the excess blood at the corner of his mouth with his arm.

"These bastards think they know everything." Zaku coughed," Like judgment and equality."

He didn't know it but, Zaku received a black right eye and several bruises on each limb from the two men. It also seemed like a miracle that he survived. Course, he never really regarded the gift of vitality as a miracle really. Sometimes, he felt it to be the opposite. Sometimes, he wondered why fate had decided this upon him. He would wonder why 'God' (if there was one) took away his parents and only family. He wondered if his life would meet a turning point before it was taken away from him. He blinked lazily and looked up at the oranging sky. He didn't have it in him to get up, but his pride wouldn't allow him to lay around just in case someone else he looted from would show up. Slowly he tried to stand up by putting all of his weight onto his wrists. He had a sensation of sprain appear in both his wrists instantly and collapsed back to the ground.

"Why do I even bother?" He asked hopelessly as he brought his palms in front of him.

"Surely it because you seek tomorrow and refuse to live in the moment." A raspy voice slithered.

Zaku brought himself up again," Who's there?"

A figure appeared from the corner of the alley. He was, very pale with long dark hair that reached his waist.

_"Is this a girl or a guy?"_ Zaku thought to himself as his eye twitched.

"What do you want? I don't ever remember stealing from you.." Zaku said as he pushed himself back.

"I could get you out of these slums..I could train you to be a shinobi." The man said.

"At...at what cost?" Zaku stammered.

"No cost. I only see, potential in you." The man grinned.

Zaku's expression changed and a blank look took over his face. Potential? Sure he had heard the word before, but never was told he _had _potential.

"But..but come on, why me?" Zaku asked cautiously.

"Is this what you're like when offered help?" The man asked.

"What do you mean when you say help?"

"I will help your potential bloom from within you, I will raise you to become the strongest ninja you could ever dream of, and I only ask for a simple condition."

"What?"

"You must give me, your immortal loyalty." The man declared.

_"What's he going on about? I'm not even sure I have enough loyalty to give him, let alone immortal loyalty."_

After contemplating for a few moments, Zaku finally gave him a response.

Zaku held his hand out and the man helped him up.

"Deal."

After that day, I abandoned the streets the man named Orochimaru called slums and went alongside him to be a shinobi. I trained relentlessly for hours and hours each and every day. I trained from morning until night when my muscles grew awfully sore and I could barely keep my eyes open. Blisters would occasionally form on my hand after gripping every single kunai and shuriken Lord Orochimaru would give me. I could care less about the physical damage I brought to myself as I trained though. I knew it would all payoff. It would only be form a little longer, and then when Lord Orochimaru would consider skilled with simple weapons, he would teach me ninjutsu. Finally, after countless throws of kunai and blisters covering my palms, I was told by him I was ready.

"The first thing we need to see is your chakra nature." Orochimaru stated.

"My chakra..nature?" Zaku repeated.

"It's quite simple really," Orochimaru walked over to the desk in the room and grabbed a small white paper. He held the chakra-filled paper out towards Zaku.

"What do you want me to do?" Zaku asked.

"Simply focus your chakra into it." Orochimaru replied.

Gingerly, he took the paper from his hand and did as Orochimaru said. He shut his eyes tightly in concentration and after a few moments, the paper split in half.

"Huh..?" Zaku said as he opened his eyes.

"Excellent." Orochimaru hissed," Your chakra nature is the element of wind."

"Wind..?" Zaku said.

"I know exactly what can amplify your abilities." Orochimaru stated.

I didn't realize his 'amplifying' was going to involve inserting tubes of air into my palms. The pain I underwent during the surgery was unbelievable. It was basically extracting the center of my palms and shoving in metal tubes down into my wrists. The amount of blood I saw escape from me that day made me think I was going to die during the surgery.

After a few months, I got used to the tubes and I was finally given new clothes, along with a a metal plate with a music note adorned onto a purple-grey headband.

One day, while I was adapting to blowing air from the tubes in my palms, Orochimaru approached me with a timid dark- haired girl by his side.

"This is Kin."


	2. Chapter 2

The girl, Kin, clung herself onto Lord Orochimaru's waist as if she were a parasite. Judging by her looks, it appeared she was once a happy but bashful girl who had just witnessed her small ninja-free village burnt to the ground. It was kinda hard to tell her age but she seemed no older than thirteen, like me. Her hair was a complete black mess and fell to her waist like Orochimaru. Her skin was fair and her eyes seemed desolate and they sorta freaked me out. Overall, she seemed despondent and lonely. Surprisingly, this was the first girl with no relation to me that I've had a chance to talk to. Of course, I was at a loss for words.

"I'm Zaku..." I awkwardly held out my hand towards her. She darted her eyes towards my hands and her eyes watered. She let her hands free from Orochimaru's waist and ran off in tears.

I opened my mouth to call her name, but then stopped myself realizing she probably wouldn't listen to me.

"It might take her awhile to adjust.." Orochimaru said.

"What happened to her?" I blurted out unintentionally. I covered my mouth in embarrassment and Orochimaru simply chuckled.

"She was the neighbour's home and when she returned to her own home, the house was burnt down." Orochimaru responded lightly.

I could feel my pupil's shrink," Tragic.."

"She could use some intensive training, hopefully it will toughen her." Orochimaru said as he walked in the direction Kin ran off in.

After that day, I realized Kin was anything ordinary. Well, at least not to me. I didn't see Kin for months but somehow, each and every day, she managed to crawl her way into my mind. I couldn't understand was what going on with me. I tried to fight against thinking about her, but then she would appear in both my dreams and my nightmares. It was torment not being able to see her, even though I had only saw her once. What was it about her that made her so enticing? It's not like she liked me back or displayed any form of emotion towards me, other than fear. Her eyes reminded me of the sky at midnight and soon I could tell that she had me entranced the day we first met.

Despite harbouring Kin in my thoughts, I continued to train as I always did and managed to keep Kin out of my mind for a short while each day. But, that didn't mean she was completely gone from my thoughts.

But soon enough ( alright, more like close to a year) I was reunited with a newborn Kin.

"It seems the Chunin Exams are approaching.." Orochimaru said in his slithering tone. I could barely focus on what Orochimaru was talking about. My undivided attention was set on Kin. She had let her hair grow down to her knees at held it at the ends by a ribbon. She wore a headband similar to mine and she was given new clothes. But most importantly, her midnight-like eyes were stern and cold, complementing her now stoic and serious expression. Her new look made me grow even more fond of her, I wasn't sure if I could even speak to her.

Oh yeah, and at Orochimaru's side was a boy my height with his face bandaged up with dark hair (you could see his uncovered sideburns) and a headband like mine and Kin's.

"I've realized I made you all genin very generously, without a single test.." Orochimaru began," So then I thought, give the three of them a test that if they don't pass, they'll be degraded from genin and will be disposed of immediately."

It looked like I was the only one shocked that Orochimaru would have given such a test. Never did he mention a consequence if I were to fail a mission, so I never had anything to worry about.

"What is it you want us to do?" The mummy asked.

"Patience, Dosu." Orochimaru said to the mummy.

'Dosu rolled his eyes and sent his bored gaze towards me and Kin.

"For your, little test, I've decided..." Orochimaru began. He then made the handsigns of serpent, dragon, monkey, and ox. Our surroundings were warped into a bleak coloured terrain that made it look like we were inside a cave.

"Your task will be to break the genjutsu." Orochimaru finished.

Dosu and Kin were without reactions once again.

"Hey wait!" I shouted," Isn't this a little too extreme for us-?"

Before he could answer me, he disappeared within the blink of an eye.

"Figures." I said.

I glanced towards Kin who was examining the area. Dosu was standing nonchalantly with his eye pressed shut.

I began to look around so I wouldn't stick and shortly, I found two neighbouring passages.

"Hey look." While saying that, I seemed to have gotten Kin's attention and break Dosu's focus.

The two of them were staring me down, prompting me to say more.

"There's a couple of exits over there."

Kin and Dosu walked towards them with me awkwardly walking behind.

They observed the two passages for a short while. Finally, Kin spoke up.

"Dosu." She said. That was the first word I've ever heard from her and it was internally killing me that was she said wasn't towards me.

"Which passage should we enter?" She asked.

Dosu closed his eyes and began to focus his chakra again.

It made me feel awkward that Kin was depending on Dosu rather than me. What would make her want to trust Dosu's opinion? Had she trained alongside him during the past few months? Did she already begin to think lowly of me? As all of these thoughts swarmed my head, I began to grow anxious. I suddenly decided to make myself useful and state my opinion.

"It's that one." I blurted out.

Once again, I broke Dosu's concentration and gained Kin's attention.

"How can you be so sure?" Kin asked. Her tone was neither bitter or sweet. It was a simple question spoken with a corresponding tone.

"Intuition?" I responded dimly.

Kin and Dosu both gave me unapproving looks.

Dosu shook his head and pointed his finger towards the other passage.

"I think it's-"

"I'm going with intuition boy." Kin declared. Both Dosu and my eyes widened.

"A-are you sure?" I whispered.

"Why?" Dosu asked.

"Why did you choose that passage?" Kin questioned Dosu as she chin-pointed to the other passage.

Dosu narrowed his eyes," I asked you first."

Kin twirled around a long strand of her hair," I'm the girl here."

"There's less chakra coming from this one." Dosu said.

"By how much?" Kin interrogated.

"Not a significant amount." Dosu replied.

"Then I don't see anything else wrong with going down this way." Kin countered.

I had to admit, I was pretty surprised Kin was backing me up, considering she didn't know me too well at all.

"Fine," Dosu concluded," We'll go with Intuition's passage."

The two walked through the passage while I was beginning to wonder how much longer they were going to call me 'Intuition'.

As we walked down the path, Kin and Dosu began to observe the surroundings again while I awkwardly dug my hands into my pockets.

"So..." I said stiffly. It appeared that either Kin and Dosu didn't hear me or they didn't want to talk to me. I guess that was to be expected.

_"I wish I could be alone with Kin." _

I kept on staring at Kin without realizing it and soon, she caught on.

"What is it?" She snapped.

My flickered and I began to stammer," Um, i-it's, it's nothing..really."

Kin sighed and narrowed her as she began to walk again.

I slouched and hung my head while walking behind the unimpressed Kin and Dosu. But within a few moments, I looked up at caught the pair glaring furiously at me.

"Wha-"

I looked straight ahead and realized we had hit a dead end.

"Aw crap.."

But then, how was this entirely my fault? I only decided on the one fork. There were plenty of forks after that, and I didn't decide on any of them to take.

"I fail to see how I did anything wrong.." I said as I attempted to sound intelectual.

"You're the one who picked the fork that led us here!" Dosu snapped.

"What? I only picked the one fork, and followed you and Kin along. The only person you have to blame for this is yourself!" I shouted.

Panting, I said more of my thoughts aloud," The only reason you're blaming me is because you both think I'm the weakest link!"

"Well.." Dosu spun around and began to walk the other way,"..We're not wrong."

Kin was beginning to walk behind Dosu, so I impulsively snatched her wrist.

"What are you doing?!" Kin screamed. She looked towards Dosu's direction in apparent hopes he heard her, but he was already out of earshot.

"I know this has to be the right way," I stated.

"How?" Kin asked as she tried to shake me off. I clung on tighter, so tight her skin was beginning to bruise.

"Because you chose this path."

Kin looked as me as if I was a total idiot and I even I had to admit that sounded pretty stupid, but I wasn't ready to give up on this path just yet. Knowing she would leave if I let go of her hand, I clung to her and placed my palm against the dead end.

"Decapitating Airwaves!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Kin hid behind me and began to cling onto _me. _

Soon, the dead end was obliterated and it reveal another passage.

Kin stood there, her mouth agape and her eyes blinking rapidly. She then shook her head slowly and walked stoically towards the newly made passage.

As Kin began to walk I had realized what I had just done. I got Kin alone with me.

We began to walk for a little longer and I finally started talking to her.

"You know, you're different, from the last time I saw you." I started awkwardly.

"I was like six o'clock." Kin stated without even turning to look at me.

"Six o'clock?"

"Six o'clock was considered a bad omen in my family, it was the hour of devestation. Bad things tend to happen at six o'clock sharp."

I'm so tempted to ask her what else happened, but then..will she hate me more if I do?

After giving up on trying to talk to her we began to walk again. As I dragged my feet haplessly, I watched Kin in front of me. She refused to start talking to me again and so an awkward silence formed.

We're just so different, so I guess it's only natural that she could care less about me. But then maybe, there's still a chance that we're not as different as I thought.

"I don't hear footsteps behind me." Kin stated as she stopped walking. I realized as was standing still and gazing at the back of Kin.

"Just hurry up so we can find Dosu." Kin demanded as she turned to glare at me.

I then noticed her midnight-like eyes were the same as the first time I had met her. They were dark and almost made her seem lost. Actually, I don't think I had ever seen Kin in high-spirits.

"_Is it possible for her eyes to look like a sunrise, rather than midnight?"_

Soon, we reached yet another fork and so Kin gave herself the luxury of choosing which passage we'd go through. Kin went left and I followed along. Suddenly, as we both entered the passage, the passage entrance closed.

"W-what's happening?" Kin asked as she spun around.

As I looked forward, I saw bricks in the passage disappearing and through the newly made vacancies where the bricks used to be, kunai and shurikens began to project out in large masses towards us.

"Get down!" I shouted.

We both ducked and watched the weapons get flung over our heads.

"We have to get out of here!" Kin screamed.

"Decapitating Airwaves!" I shouted involuntarily. Hoping to weak the kunai and shuriken's hit with the jutsu, I ducked lower. But, instead of weakening the weapons, the jutsu seemed to have bounced off the walls and amplify the weapons' speed. Kin then reached for my wrist and we ran to the corner.

"What we you thinking?!" She barked. I looked at her blankly. To be honest, I wasn't sure why I did that either. Maybe it was like first nature to me.

"In a situation like this..." Kin began. She held up five senbon in her hand.

"...You have to fight weapon with weapon!"

As the kunai and shuriken came towards her, she arrogantly threw the senbon. I then noticed there were large bells attached to the senbon, large enough that if there were to pass through the holes of the kunai and the shurikens, they would be quite drawn the other way.

"..She's awfully smart." I said quietly.

As apparently predicted by Kin, the senbons did in fact go through each kunai and shuriken. But instead of going the other way, they stayed on direction and aimed themselves, with the senbon,towards Kin.

_"..What?"_

_"Kin!" _

Kin shut her eyes, ready for the worst. She readied herself to see her clothes stained with her own blood, to view all her wounds, every single form of collateral damage, she was ready but afraid to see. With a deep breath, she slowly open her eyes and found only one small bruise on her forearm that was there from before. She looked lower and found the bloody mess she was expecting.

There, clinging onto her shins was a wounded Zaku with small stabs from the countless weapons on his body. Kin clasped her hands against her mouth in shock. She slowly removed her hands from her mouth after a few moments and attempted speak. She promptly shut her mouth and knelt to Zaku.

"Wh...wh-why would you...?"

"I would do anything to keep you unharmed.."

"Are you an idiot? Is this all because you have feelings for me?" Kin asked rudely.

"Well..I guess." Zaku declared.

"Why should anyone go so far as doing that for me? I don't need to be alive, I was stripped of everything I had to live for too long ago." Kin snapped," I didn't deserve what you just did.."

Zaku blinked for a few moments, unsure of what next to do. He felt somewhat surprised, as it appears Little Miss Cocky was more than she appeared to be. It seemed like she was, lost and that she harboured self-hatred.

"Do you not want to live?"

"That's not it!" Kin yelled unintentionally.

"It's just...I never thought I'd be treated like this ever again, like I was cared for.." Kin responded,"..Then Orochimaru took me in, but then I eventually realized he's going to use up both me and you at some point.."

"What makes you think that?" Zaku asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kin questioned," What else would he do with us? Elect us as Jonin after the Chunin exams?"

"You don't trust many do you?" Zaku asked.

Kin stayed silent.

"Well, maybe things wouldn't looked like this to you if you learned how to trust others.." Zaku stated.

"I trust myself, I'm the only one that counts." Kin said as she stood up and turned her back on Zaku.

"But what about the ones that treated you as if they cared about you?" Zaku asked.

Kin balled her fists then unballed them as she faced Zaku.

"..Let's just say I don't trust you as well as I trust myself." Kin sighed," Also, I am grateful that you saved and I much as I want to take a look at your wounds, I'm afraid I don't know any medical ninjutsu."

"T-that's fine.." Zaku said shakily.

Kin's expression changed greatly.

"No it's not!" She shouted," You'll die at this rate.."

Zaku smirked," I don't think Orochimaru would let me die in his genjutsu."

"You don't know that for sure!"

Suddenly the walls began to dissolve.

"What the-?" The two said in unison.

"Well, it seems we found our duo of loyalty." Orochimaru hissed to the two once the walls were finally gone. Alongside him was Dosu.

"Am I going to die?" Zaku asked.

"Are we going to get to go to the Chunin exams?" Kin asked.

" I'll get Kabuto to look at your wounds. As for you two forwarding to the Chunin exams.." Orochimaru began.

"Please, I know I didn't get to display my abilities as effectively as you hoped in the genjutsu and I know we didn't break it, but you've see the both of us train constantly! Don't you we deserve this much?" Kin begged.

"Alright, prove me wrong in the Chunin exams.." Orochimaru concluded. Kin lit up and arose.

"Thank you so much! We won't let you down!" Kin praised.

"So how'd you break the genjutsu?" Zaku asked.

"It's not likely you'll find out any time soon." Dosu said.

_As you can see, I didn't necessarily 'get the girl' but I managed to get her to side with me. After that, I can't honestly say I made much of my life, but I know I lived each moment as if this was all I had to live for. I know my life wasn't all that great and it wasn't rather long. But I died alongside Kin, and that was it. _


End file.
